Shadow and Bone
Synopsis
Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near-impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold, and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha and the secrets of her heart
Review
There has been so much hype around these books over the past couple of years on Booktok and beyond. To the point where they have ended up with a show on Netflix. The problem with hype is that you tend to get a very high opinion of whatever the hype is surrounding. This is why, personally, I try and avoid reading books that are super popular at the height of their popularity so that my opinions and expectations aren’t as swayed by everyone else.
With all that being said, was I disappointed in Shadow and Bone? Yes, very much so.
At this point, I will note that S&B was Leigh Bardugo’s debut novel and series.
Overall, did I enjoy it? Yes. Did it capture my imagination and make me curious about the world, characters, etc.? To a point, yes. Was I swept away? No.
Let’s start with the positive. Bardugo has created an intriguing world that, in some ways, has parallels to parts of our own. The world in which Ravka is set is fascinating and complete. The magic and the whole Grisha elements are cool and unique. The fact that it’s set within a war and civil war adds additional components and difficulties for the characters to overcome. These aspects ignited my curiosity and made me want to know more and continue reading.
But there was a lot that I wasn’t sold on. I never felt like I got to know Alina, even though it’s written in the first person. I never built an interest in her as a character, journey, or story. I also didn’t build any sympathy for any of the other key characters. By the time I finished reading, I honestly couldn’t have cared less about the characters, but I did about Ravka and some of the background characters.
It would have been better told in the third person with multiple points of view, like the later books in the Grishaverse. This thought process kind of ties into my next point.
Time. One of my biggest pet peeves and turn-offs for books revolves around time. And S&B does the time thing. The thing where time is just jumped through and a long period of time happens in only a few pages. I think at least six months pass in this book, but it’s only 300 pages long…
I felt like there were so many missed opportunities to tell us, the reader, more about the world, about Grisha power, about Ravka’s history and to gain sympathy towards the characters in the parts of the book that were just skipped over. This is where that whole third person and multiple points of view could have played in. While Alina was learning to use her Grisha powers, we could have been following Mal, or Genya, or the Darkling or someone. It would have added a lot more interest to the story itself.
By the time I’m writing this review, I have finished all the current books in the Grishaverse (Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising, Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, King of Scars, and Rule of Wolves) and have thoroughly enjoyed them (keep an eye out for those reviews!). If you’re unsure whether or not to give S&B ago, I suggest just doing it. It’s a short book, and the trilogy does give you a good starting point and initial information, which is helpful for the later books.
I can understand why people love them. 13-year-old Sarah would have been captivated by it.
I will add a side note: I liked the Netflix series more than the book… Take that as you will.
Siege and Storm
Synopsis
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
Review
Siege and Storm is the second book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. If you have read my above review on Shadow and Bone, you know that I wasn’t all that blown away by it. I have to say that I enjoyed Siege and Storm a lot more. There was almost a feeling that Bardugo had gained more confidence in writing these books.
Even though I enjoyed Siege and Storm more than Shadow and Bone, I still came away from it feeling like it lacked something. As I said in my review of Shadow and Bone, I felt having the story told from multiple points of view would have benefited it better, as she does with the Six of Crows and King of Scars books. I feel this would have allowed us to dive deeper into the world and the story being told; thus, as a reader, we would gain more satisfaction from it.
It’s a very typical young adult fantasy. As a huge reader and lover of fantasy, I was more or less able to predict what would happen throughout. There weren’t many surprises in it for me. In saying that, I find that I come across this quite often and am beginning to wonder if it’s because, for more of my life, I have only read fantasy and usually ones that fall into the same type of story arc. Does anyone else find this too?
I did find it enjoyable. The magic of the Grishaverse is exciting and unique. It is a satisfying read and does leave you wanting more and rather caught up in the world.
I will add that even after reading two books, I still don’t have great sympathy for Alina, Mal and many of the key characters. Though I may have fallen slightly in love with a certain pirate, sorry, I mean ‘privateer’.
Ruin and Rising
Synopsis
The capital has fallen.
The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.
Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of their bond and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
Review
If you’ve read my reviews of Shadow & Bone and Siege & Storm, the first two books in the trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, you will know that I was underwhelmed, especially concerning the hype that has surrounded them recently. It was worth struggling through them to get to the ending; Ruin & Rising is the best book in the trilogy.
I won’t lie or exaggerate, it’s still not the best YA Fantasy series I have read. Many things could and should’ve been done in this book and within the series that would have made it better. I have mentioned my thoughts on this in previous reviews related to Shadow & Bone, but things like multiple POVs, more details, fewer ’time skips’ etc.
But, overall, Ruin & Rising did an excellent job of closing up this particular story in the Grishaverse while setting the scene for future stories. And having read the other books within the Grishaverse, I would say that it is pretty helpful to read Shadow & Bone because of this ‘setting of the scene’.
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